This invention relates to a method for renewing the brickwork of vertical heating flues in heating walls near the outer ends of horizontal coke ovens. More particularly, the present invention provides a method wherein replacement brickwork is selected to include oven bricks, each having a projecting lug extending from a side thereof for engagement over the existing oven brickwork at a vertical section through the heating wall and on the heating flue side thereof.
In horizontal coke ovens, the heating flues near the ends are formed by brickwork of heating walls, sometimes called oven walls herein, between the oven chambers and the flues. Other brickwork for the heating flues includes walls sometimes called midfeathers arranged as separators to form discrete areas of the flues. Near the ends of the oven chambers the brickwork is subject to more severe wear than the brickwork at the central part of the oven chambers. Sometimes, therefore, repairs are made only to the brickwork of the heating walls near the end portions of the oven chambers up to, for example, the second, third or fourth flue. In the repair process, the heating flues located in the heating walls toward the central portion of the oven chamber are operated at a temperature which is sufficient to insure combustion of a relatively small amount of gas supplied to these flues. Operating the flues in this manner prevents the occurrence of appreciable changes to the structure of the bricks. The internal parts of the oven chambers are sealed off by vertical walls that are sometimes referred to hereinafter as partitions. However, coke undergoing processing in the oven chamber may be removed previously or the coke may be left in the oven chamber under certain circumstances. The top of the oven is propped up above the parts to undergo repair whereas the bottom of the oven, the regenerator foundation and gas inlets all remain untouched even if gas is supplied through the ducts under the heating flues. The inlet ducts also supply gas to the flues in the central part of the heating wall but the supply of gas to the heating flues at the ends of the oven chamber requiring renewal is cut off by pipe members inserted into the supply inlets.
In this process of renewing the brickwork of the heating flues, it is necessary to solve the problem of forming a gastight seal between the existing brickwork and the new brickwork after the new brickwork has been heated. The existing brickwork remains at a relatively high temperature during the restoration process, while the new brickwork must be heated gradually so as to expand in a conventional manner.